


Lost Girl Snow

by valkyriewarcry



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Non-Consensual Spanking, Spanking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-13
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 06:58:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1183258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyriewarcry/pseuds/valkyriewarcry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The magic of Neverland de-ages Snow into an 11 year-old. Ever her stubborn self, she ends up in harm's way one too many times. Since Snow recognizes Regina as her only figure of authority, her stepmother takes care of her punishment. Warning: Contains non-consensual, disciplinary spanking of a minor. Fill for a kink meme prompt (but no sex is involved.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hero Complex vs. Accountability

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fill for the ouat kink meme, and it contains the non-consensual spanking of a minor for disciplinary purposes, so if that offends/triggers/otherwise upsets you, then please read no further. There is no sex or allusions to sex.
> 
> Prompt: “[In Neverland] Emma isn’t the only Lost Girl on the island. The magic of the island causes Snow to be de-aged to 10 or 11. Although sweet-natured, Snow remains stubborn as well as fearless. The only authority she recognizes is Regina (she remembers her as her step-mother). She ends up doing something foolhardy and Regina either scolds or spanks her to tears. Although both Emma and David slightly approve of it (Snow scared them shitless) since it’s Regina they can’t help but feel bad for Snow.”
> 
> All mistakes are mine. I do not own OUaT. Thanks for reading!

Lost Girl Snow

Chapter 1: Hero Complex vs. Accountability

“Tinkerbell, I need a few minutes alone with Snow. Would you mind letting us use your home?” Regina asked, her eyes never leaving Snow, who was leaning on the makeshift table (out of Regina’s reach) with her arms over her chest.

The former fairy jumped at the chance to move out of range of Regina’s oncoming wrath, letting the woman know, “Sure. I’ll leave you to it, then,” before climbing down the ladder and closing the hatch behind her.

Tense silence filled the hut as Regina stood, glaring at Snow and making the girl fidget as she stared back with wide eyes.

“It’s time we had a talk about your unfortunate predilection for endangering your life,” the older woman stated.

“I was trying to help. Wendy tricked me,” Snow whined. In that moment, Regina was taken aback at the striking similarity between Snow’s pout and Henry’s. Also, the boy had exhibited the same independent attitude too many times to count lately. She now blamed her son’s over-zealous heroics on Snow’s family genes. Which brought her train of thought to another relevant point to make.

“And that can be accounted for due to your lack of forethought. When you rush headlong into situations—alone, might I add—you open yourself up to countless threats without any way to protect yourself!” Regina looked very angry now, for her eyes had darkened and her frown deepened. The woman clenched her fists at her sides as she continued, “Everyone here is already looking for one lost child. We don’t have time to go chasing after you, too.”

Snow responded with offence to these words as she spoke with annoyance.

“You just think I can’t do anything! Well, I’m not useless. I just want to help find Henry.”

Regina didn’t bother correcting Snow’s assumption (because, quite frankly, Regina had been the only one accomplishing anything lately), but the girl’s pigheadedness prompted her to sternly retort, “The only thing you should be doing at present is obeying the instructions you are given, but you seem to be having trouble remembering what that means.”

She walked over to what Tinkerbell considered a table, pulling a tree stump/chair out into the middle of the hut.

As she sat down, she spoke, “So now, Snow White, I am giving you one chance to prove to me that you know how to heed my authority. Bend over my knee. You’re getting a spanking.”

Snow startled at the order. She accompanied her reaction by shaking her head frantically and reaching her hands back to cover her bottom.

“You can’t hit me. You aren’t allowed to hit me,” Snow stuttered as she tried to remind Regina of the stipulation the king had placed on Regina’s control over Snow’s discipline, since he considered the physical punishment of females improper. The new queen had silently disagreed with Leopold, believing the spoiled princess could benefit from a little corporal punishment, but she had gone along with the king’s wishes. Bearing in mind that the king had passed on some time ago, Regina saw no need to follow old dogma.

“We are a long way from the palace and the Enchanted Forest. I will do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety of everyone traveling with us, including you, since you can’t be bothered to do the same. No more stalling, young lady. Bend over my lap,” she repeated.

Snow seemed to shrink in fear as she struggled to comply. She wrung her hands for several seconds as she tepidly looked at her stepmother’s formidable pose.

“That’s enough,” Regina remarked gruffly, reaching out for the preteen before pulling her face down across her knees. The girl attempted to regain her balance, but Regina repositioned her quickly, making Snow’s backside a prime target. “I was merely going to spank you with my hand if you had complied, but your continued disobedience has now earned you a paddling,” she spoke in an exasperated tone while sliding the girl’s leggings down to her knees.

“No! Please, no, I don’t want a spanking!” Snow cried, throwing a hand back to cover her panties.

Regina rolled her eyes at the princess’s overdramatic actions as she rolled up the cuff of her blazer.

“Aside from what every subject in your kingdom would have you believe, the world does not revolve around your desires. Now, move your hand, little girl, or your undergarments will be taken down as well,” Snow’s stepmother warned. Her words were effective, since Snow finally did as she was told. “You’d best hold onto my ankle if you feel the urge to move your hand again because if you reach back here while I’m punishing you, I will bare your bottom.”

Upon hearing the humiliating threat, Snow sniffled as tears filled her eyes, but she took Regina’s advice.

“This isn’t fair,” the girl complained, squirming slightly across her stepmother’s knees.

“Quite the contrary, my dear, this comeuppance is very fair. What isn’t fair is me having to split my time and energy between finding Henry and tracking you down when you wander off into danger. I swear, you’re somehow worse behaved the second time around,” Regina lectured.

Truthfully, after Snow’s magical mishap transformed her into a child, Regina had expected little else from her step-daughter besides magnified self-absorption. However, after spending two days trying (and failing miserably) to keep the girl out of harm’s way–while simultaneously worrying about her kidnapped son—Regina’s patience had snapped.   

Without warning, she started smacking Snow’s tiny backside, not even using half her strength yet eliciting loud cries of pain from her young charge. Regina briefly wondered how much coddling the girl had received before her mother died (because Heaven knew the girl’s father kept it up enough for both himself and his deceased wife.) And Charming certainly wasn’t any better on that front.

She continued lecturing Snow about the hazards associated with her lack of good sense, all the while spanking the girl sharply over her panties. Regina deprecated the poor choices Snow had made in the last forty-eight hours, and soon, the young girl was sobbing heartily and jolting with every smack contributing to the heat in her backside.

Assuming she had given the girl about two dozen smacks with her hand, Regina paused the punishment. The woman extended her right arm in front of her with the palm facing up. Then, she closed her eyes, summing her magical energy to conjure a wooden hairbrush. The item appeared in her outstretched hand, at which point Regina brought it over to show the troublemaker across her knees.

“This is what disobedience gets you,” she said, forcing the little brunette to look at the terrifying, oval object in her stepmother’s grasp. At the sight, Snow tried with all her strength to push herself off her stepmother’s lap.

“I’m sorry, I’ll be good! Don’t spank me with that, please. You punished me enough. I won’t run off again, and I’ll do everything you tell me. Please!” Snow begged through her tears. The girl’s tone of voice reminded Regina of her exchange with Mary Margaret in the sheriff’s office several months ago right before the woman’s trial for the (fake) murder of Kathryn. Just as before, Regina had little sympathy, outside of feeling slightly remorseful for turning Snow White’s backside rose red.

“You had plenty of chances to behave, but you made the choice not to, and now you’ll face the consequences.” Thinking herself rather generous, Regina informed the crying girl, “Since you are eleven years old at the moment, you’ll only be getting twenty-two more smacks. Then we will rejoin the others back at the campsite, and that will be the end of this disaster of a day.”

The preteen over her knee had other ideas, though, since she cried, “Nooooo! Please don’t do it!”

“Would you prefer I give you twice your actual age instead? That would be upwards of sixty.”

“Uh-uh, I don’t want the hairbrush.”

“I’m amazed at your ability to dig yourself in deeper,” Regina muttered before tightening her hold on Snow’s waist, raising the brush to shoulder-level, and bringing it down on the pink bottom in front of her.

The jumpy girl nearly screamed when she felt the burning impact of the wood against her cloth-covered skin.

“This is not a theatrical production, dear, you needn’t be so dramatic about it,” Regina chided, landing a few smacks on the girl’s sit spots.

“It hurts! It hurts so badly!” Despite her words, which sounded rife with frustration, Snow toned down her reaction to the spanking, causing Regina to chuckle to herself for calling her stepdaughter’s bluff.

“It’s a spanking; it’s supposed to hurt. Maybe hurting for a little while will jog your memory the next time you think it’s ok to jump into harm’s way.”

Something in the girl snapped at that point. Her next words came out angry and full of resentment.

“You’re being mean and vile, and I don’t want to be around you anymore!” the little girl kept kicking and struggling against Regina’s hold as she yelled. If they had been anywhere else besides Neverland at the moment, Regina would have rejoiced at the last part of the princess’s sentence. As it were, cooperation was necessary on this God-forsaken island.

After hauling the girl back into place and landing several more swats on her bottom, Regina threw a barb of her own, “You are being a foolhardy, selfish little girl, and if I had a bar of soap, I would make you put it in your mouth for the way you’re speaking to me. Hush up and hold still, or I’ll make this much worse.”

The girl’s brattiness intensified briefly as she bucked her legs and beat the wooden floor with her hands (Regina point blank refused to help the girl deal with whatever bodily injuries she incurred aside from her red ass.) However, the effort to keep up the fight while still dealing with the barrage against her rear end ate away her energy. By the time Regina gave her the fifteenth swat, Snow let herself go limp over the woman’s knee. She took the final smacks with no more fuss, instead just crying out with each one and letting her tears fall.


	2. Aftercare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regina comforts Snow to the best of her ability.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I've decided there will be one more chapter, since I didn't send Regina and Snow back to camp yet (and the Charmings need to give lil Snow lots of hugs!) This chapter is my view of how Regina would comfort Snow. It isn't perfect or ideal, but there's still a lot that these two need to work through outside of this situation. Let me know what you think. Thank you for reading.
> 
> I do not own ouat.
> 
> And if there are any typos, please tell me.

Lost Girl Snow

Chapter 2: Aftercare

Snow continued to cry after Regina set the brush on the table behind her. About a minute passed before the girl realized the punishment had ended, at which point she pushed herself upright, even though her tears hadn't stopped. She looked to Regina like a child who needed comfort, with her shoulder shaking as she reached down to slowly pull up her leggings. Despite the soreness in her backside, she didn't reach back to rub, but her tiny fingers laced together as she wrung her hands. Shifting from foot to foot in discomfort, Snow tried to soothe herself, which resulted in hiccuping. When she finally looked at Regina, her eyes were filled with uncertainty and a hint of resentment.

The girl looked as conflicted by Regina's presence as Henry had in those awful first months after the curse broke. Gazing into the girl's green eyes sent a pang of devastation through her heart—she missed her son beyond measure, and she couldn't reconcile her ability to save Snow from harm's way while she was helpless to do the same for Henry. But perhaps focusing on the here and now was the first step along the way to rescuing her son.

Grimacing slightly at the princess's dirty face, Regina pulled out her handkerchief and reached over to wipe at the tear-and-dirt-stained cheeks. Snow flushed at the intimate contact but didn't pull away.

Snow was trying to stay mad at her stepmother for punishing her in such a harsh manner, but now that she had calmed down, Snow felt the magic spell allow more of her adult self to rationalize her circumstances. She couldn't get her birth mother's words out of her head, the ones compelling her to keep goodness in her heart, to let her conscience guide her, to be selfless. If Snow was being upfront with herself, her behavior did not live up to Eva's expectations. And however reluctant she was to admit it, her guilt over that was mostly abated by the spanking she was currently experiencing the full effects of.

When Regina finished cleaning the little girl's face, she stashed the handkerchief back in her pocket before reaching under Snow's chin and directing the girl to look at her.

"I hope you're ready to listen now," Regina said tightly. Her eyes pierced Snow, daring the girl to say no.

Not feeling much like talking (more like not trusting herself to be respectful in her answer) Snow nodded as enthusiastically as she could manage (not very.)

Regina's gaze strayed to the girl's unruly hair, which swayed as the girl consented. The dark brown locks were knotted and messy, echoing the girl's hairdo during her days as a bandit. Giving into the urge to fix the hair, Regina moved her hand from Snow's chin to her slender shoulder.

"Your hair looks like a rat's nest, seeing as you probably haven't combed it in past day. Turn around so I can help you manage it," Regina instructed.

As Snow did as she was told—for the first time since entering the hut—Regina reached back around for the brush, this time planning to use it for its intended purpose. She surveyed the chaotic mess in front of her, trying to determine a starting point, when she noticed Snow was fidgeting quite a bit and still wringing her hands.

Deciding to relent slightly, Regina conceded, "You may rub if you wish, Snow."

"Thank goodness," the girl sighed in satisfaction, allowing her hands to wander behind her to rub at her burning skin. Her shoulders slumped as the tension in her stance melted away with her relieving motions.

Starting her grooming at the base of Snow's hair, Regina stayed silent for a minute as memories of her past life in the White castle sprang to mind. The woman articulated with surprise that she was no longer filled with disgust or blinding hatred for the little girl standing in front of her. Irritation, yes, but Regina wondered if this had more to do with the girl's regressed age and the immaturity that came along with it as opposed to Regina finding offence in the girl's presence alone. The former queen channeled her remaining exasperation into (gently) working through a clump of dark, knotted hair, pausing whenever Snow's hiccups surfaced.

"You made poor choices today," Regina quietly started in on the last part of this discussion.

The small hands on Snow's backside stilled for a moment as the girl considered the words.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you," she eventually whispered.

"You can apologize properly in a minute, young lady. First, I want to make sure you grasp the full weight of the actions for which you were just punished. Do you understand that your behavior was selfish?"

Snow sucked in a breath tightly as Regina accidentally snagged a knot in her hair before the girl admitted, "I don't see how, if I was trying to help with the mission."

After rubbing the girl's scalp where the brush tugged too roughly, Regina responded.

"Peter Pan is trying to kill us all, and you wandering away from the people who are protecting you only makes that easier for him. Not only did your disappearance distract from the mission, it placed unnecessary stress and worry on the people who love you." By focusing on grooming the child in front of her instead of on her left over vexation, Regina kept her breathing even and prevented her tone from hardening. She saw no reason to mince her words, as she might have when chastising her stepdaughter back in the Enchanted Forest, so she continued with a frank description of the emotional core of the issue. "I don't know if you've realized this, Snow, but the entirety of your remaining family is on this island right now. David and Emma and Henry would be devastated if the unthinkable happened to you. I have definitely said this before, so I'll say it again: your actions affect others."

The appeal to Snow's pathos drew out the desired reaction, as Snow whipped around to face her stepmother, her face crumpling as she became distraught all over again.

"Were David and Emma really that upset after I left?"

At this question, Regina realized the girl truly hadn't even thought of this. Maybe the girl's ten year-old side had more control over Snow's autonomy than she originally had thought. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Snow had been a lonely child, without any real companions or active family members to concern herself with, which could explain why she had run off in the middle of the night without a thought about how the rest of the group would react.

"Yes, dear, they were. David just about rushed into danger himself in a foolish attempt to go after you. And Emma…" Regina trailed off.

Recalling the first few terrifying moments following the discovery of Snow's disappearance caused Regina to fixate on the memory of the blonde's face. Emma had looked as if the fabric of her world had once again been ripped to shreds, and she had rambled in a panic about kidnappings and lost children and unworthiness and things being taken from her and how they all really were living in a nightmare.

The sound of Snow's voice pulled Regina back to the present.

"How can I face them after what I've done? I've been so horribly self-centered," Snow whimpered as she turned away from Regina with her face in her hands. The older woman took this opportunity to continue brushing the messy hair in front of her.

"You owe them both an apology, for one thing. I'm sure it will take a while to rebuild the trust you've broken, but a good start will be following the instructions they give you from now on. There isn't a way in Hell they won't both still love you; you Charmings practically emit the stuff like it's carbon dioxide," Regina quipped. "Besides, you've been punished, and everyone can move on from this. Even if they disagree with how I've dealt with you, it is finished. They have little right to hold your actions over you any longer."

Snow hesitantly asked, "So…that means you won't hold it over me either?"

Regina cursed silently in her head for setting herself up like this, but the insecurity in the princess's tone resonated with her too much to set the conversation aside.  _For Henry,_  she thought,  _Henry is more important than my grudge against Snow White right now._

"No, Snow, I won't. We're going to move past this," she whispered, though her voice came out strained.

At these words, Snow turned around once more, but this time she bolted forward to wrap her arms around Regina in an unexpected hug. Regina couldn't keep from tensing for a second, but her body gave into the comfort. If she closed her eyes, she could imagine it was Henry in her arms, alive and safe. Also, Henry would be happy to know that his mother and his grandmother were cooperating (enough to hug each other, no less.) She was suddenly oddly relieved Snow hadn't not died on her reckless adventure through the jungle, a thought which prompts Regina to clutch the girl a bit tighter.

After several more seconds, the princess moved out of the hug to look up at her stepmother.

"Will you braid my hair, please?" Ten year-old Snow was back full-force, then, Regina surmised.

Wanting to distract herself from her unfamiliar feelings, Regina agreed, beginning by separating the girl's thick hair into sections.

Soon, Regina quieted her thoughts as she focused on French-braiding her stepdaughter's hair (the memories of a lost lifetime wanted to come flooding to the shore, but Regina held them at bay  _somehow._ )

The soothing motions of her stepmother's fingers running through her hair as more strands were added to the braid lulled Snow into a sleepy state. Her head bobbed forward as she failed to keep her eyes open, but Regina's voice nudged her awake again.

"Stay awake for a little while longer, dear. We still need to make our way back to the camp."

"I really put everyone in danger, didn't I?" Snow asked sleepily.

"Yes, you did," Regina admitted as she finished the braid, tying the end of it with a short piece of twine she conjured.

Snow turned to face her stepmother as she continued slowly, though she was fighting sleep with every sentence, "And being in Neverland is about rescuing Henry…and running off doesn't help you find him." Regina could see that exhaustion wasn't the only reason the girl struggled to get the words out, but Snow kept her gaze on Regina the whole time, the former queen noted with a hint of pride. "And you have to keep me safe too because I'm stuck like this for a while. I'm sorry for making bad choices and endangering my life and for worrying everyone. I'll do as I'm told from now on."

"Thank you for apologizing, Snow. Let's head back to camp now, and start fresh tomorrow, yes?" Regina said, ushering the small girl toward the ladder leading out of the tree-house down to the jungle floor.

"Yes, Regina."


	3. The Whole Truth and Nothing But

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more small chapter after this, and I have most of it written! Thanks for sticking with me on this one :)

Regina and Snow stumble into camp about a quarter of an hour later, thanks to Tinkerbell’s guidance through the jungle. The fallen fairy had given Regina the stink-eye upon her descent from the treehouse, but Tink had kept quiet about her opinions of Regina’s discipline until Snow was a few steps in front of them.

“I don’t know why I’m so surprised you would beat a child. Seems like you got your revenge over the girl after all. You probably enjoyed that,” Tinkerbell accused.

“Once upon a time, yes, I would have relished the chance to give my stepchild a smacked bottom. Now, however, this whole situation is an inconvenience—one that I have accepted responsibility of, which includes handing out punishments when necessary. Think what you will about me, Tinkerbell, but I did what no one else has the spine to do, and our mission here is better off for it,” Regina fired back. She had been in a decent mood when she and Snow had descended from the treehouse to the jungle floor, but now Tinkerbell’s antagonism, coupled with the stifling humidity among the trees, refueled her irritation.

“You’re not even sorry.”

“Why should I be sorry? Snow is the one who endangered her life and disobeyed me. I have no remorse for punishing her. If anything, I’m sorry about having to act the girl’s mother. It’s no doubt confusing for her, and it’s going to make things even tenser between us when this spell wears off,” she said as she dabbed at the sweat gathering on her forehead.

The fallen fairy attempted to continue the argument, but Regina shut her down quickly by speeding up her feet in order to walk beside her stepdaughter.

Snow’s exhaustion kept causing her to stumble over tree roots weaving through the jungle floor. Her stepmother took her hand and led her through the trees until they broke into a clearing that contained their campsite.

Tinkerbell didn’t stick around long. After briefly explaining how she found Snow trekking through the jungle with Wendy (who had balked at the sight of the blonde adult due to Tink’s ability to snuff out when the children on the island were up to no good), Tinkerbell told the group about her impromptu decision to bring Snow to her treehouse for a small meal. Although the woman had intended to guide Snow back to her family, Regina, who was very distressed, had shown up to see if her adversary had seen any traces of the little brunette princess. The former fairy didn’t share any details about the reunion—neither the way the fear melted off Regina’s appearance at seeing Snow in the hut, nor the morally offensive punishment that took place thereafter.

No one noticed the woman slip back between the trees, since they were preoccupied with greeting Snow. Emma was the first to rush over to her child-sized mother, causing Regina’s eyebrows to nearly hit her hairline as she watched her scoop the girl up in her arms in an unusual display of affection.

“I’m so happy you’re ok!” the blonde said in a shaky voice. Regina could see that she was fighting back tears.

Snow clung to her daughter for as long as Emma would allow. The two displayed quite the topsy-turvy image, with Snow stroking Emma’s long blonde hair and Emma burying her head in her mom’s tiny neck.

“It’s alright. I’m back now,” Snow said in an attempt to soothe her child’s fears, but her high-pitched voice snapped Emma out of the tender moment.

Regina watched the vulnerability in Emma poof away as she set Snow on the ground and gave her a hard, angry look.

“What the hell were you thinking? There was no reason for you to run off like that!”

The remorse on Snow’s face struck a note of satisfaction someplace deep and dark inside Regina.

“I’m really sorry. I won’t run off again. Please believe me,” the little brunette shifted her gaze between her daughter and David. At hearing his child’s yelling, he had stepped over to his two girls and discretely placed a hand on Emma’s shoulder in a calming gesture.

“We were extremely worried, Snow. When we woke up and realized you were gone, we thought the worst had happened,” Charming responded.

“I know. Regina talked to me about why I was wrong to sneak away.” A blush rose to the girl’s cheeks as she skirted the full truth of her encounter with her stepmother.

“Oh, I did more than just talk, dear,” Regina commented. As embarrassed as Snow might be to share the details of her punishment, if she didn’t reveal it now, Regina would be the one to take the fall when the truth came out. Better to have the Charmings bite her head off now than to have them skin her alive later.

Snow however, seemed intent on digging Regina’s grave, as she tried to brush the conversation aside by announcing, “I’m tired. I’d like to go lay down, please.”

“Wait, what happened? What did you do?” Emma turned her suspicious gaze to Regina.

“What happened is that Snow now fully understands what the consequences will be for any future misdeeds,” Regina explained.

“Regina. What. Did. You. Do.”

At this point, Snow realized the futility of walking away from a conversation that centered around herself. However, in a last ditch effort, she tugged on Regina’s blazer and pleadingly whispered for her stepmother not to tell her family how she had been punished.

Her plan quickly backfired when Regina turned toward her and spoke.

“Snow, since you agreed to take responsibility for your actions, why don’t you tell David and Emma how you were punished?” Though Regina phrased her words as a question, she left no room for dissent from her command.

“Regina sp—” Her stepdaughter started to answer, but Regina swiftly cut her off.

“No, no, we’re not playing your little semantics game. You are the subject of the recent search party and now of this conversation, so make yourself the subject of your sentence.”

“Come on, Regina, do you have to be so harsh with her? She’s just been lost in the jungle for twenty-four hours,” Charming advocated.

The queen merely rolled her eyes at the man before telling Snow to have out with it.

“I got…” Snow swallowed hard and took a deep breath before rushing the rest out, “I got spanked.” The little princess was beet red by now and staring at the ground.


	4. Forgiveness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all your support :) This is it!

There was a thick moment of quiet as all stood still in the jungle heat before Emma stepped toward Regina with a fierce look on her face.

“Why did you do that? You had no right to do that!” Emma exclaimed. She frantically shook her father’s shoulder in an effort to break his silence. “David, say something!”

He kept his disappointed gaze on Snow when he spoke.

“What do you think about your punishment, Snow?”

“What kind of a question is that? She’s ten! She can’t answer that,” Emma said.

At those words, Regina couldn’t hold back a sardonic laugh.

“So she’s old enough to choose to run away in the middle of the night, but she’s not old enough to express her actual opinion about the outcome?” she questioned.

“I think it’s safe to say any kid would hate being hit by someone they’re supposed to trust.”

“It isn’t as if I beat her within an inch of her life. Besides, I think we all know by now not to trust _your_ parenting skills, Miss Swan.”

“At least I didn’t plot to kill my child for ten years!” As Emma yelled, she kept creeping closer and closer into Regina’s personal space. Regina felt the rage simmering inside her, but other than clenching her teeth and shaking a bit, she didn’t unleash her anger onto Emma. Instead, she over-exaggerated her disappointment, which was quite the trump-card from Regina’s point of view.

“Oh, the things I could say about you…Why won’t you act your age, Emma? For once in your life!”

“Or what? You’ll spank me too?”

“Please stop fighting! I’d like to answer the question,” Snow cut in.

The whole group whipped theirs heads towards Snow as they ceased arguing.

“Regina was very fair,” she said as her fingers found comfort in touching her braid.

“You’re not just saying that to make Regina or Emma less angry, Snow?” David prodded.

Snow shook her head while toying with the end of her braid.

“Regina was plenty angry before—when she found me,” she continued in a soft voice. “But she fixed my mistake. She told me how selfish I was to leave camp alone. It was wrong of me to do that.”

“So she made you feel worse about it?” Emma demanded.

“Don’t be mad at her, Emma. Be mad at me, if you want to be mad at someone. I deserved to be punished.” Somehow, Snow’s words made the frown on Emma’s face deepen.

“I agree with Snow’s point of view,” David said. He turned his gaze to his wife as he continued, “What you did was extremely selfish and disrespectful of our love for you, Snow. It sounds like Regina corrected your attitude about being here on this island. We’re here together, and we need to stay that way.”

At her husband’s words, Snow let a few tears track down her face, but she nodded along without fuss.

“Please forgive me,” Snow spoke quietly, looking at David and Emma in turn.

Emma’s brow was still furrowed as she thought the situation over again, but her eyes softened as she asked, “You’re really not upset that Regina spanked you?”

Next to Snow, Regina rolled her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

“At first I was…I’m not now though. But I don’t want it to happen again!” The hand that wasn’t touching Snow’s dark hair flew back to instinctively rub her bottom, much to her embarrassment.

“That will be entirely up to you, my dear,” Regina responded. “But as I said before, I’ve already forgiven you.”

“I forgive you, too, Snow. I’m so relieved to have you back with us,” David said as he wrapped his arms around his wife in a big hug.

Emma put an arm on each of her parents before reluctantly offering Snow her forgiveness, as well.

“I hope this spell wears off soon, for your sake, Snow,” Emma commented. “Wherever you go, trouble seems to follow,” she finished with a slight laugh.

“You should have seen her during her first time as a preteen,” Regina said sardonically before she let her exhaustion take full hold. “Now, if all is…as normal as it can be with one child missing and another in the wrong age range, then I would like to go to sleep. The sooner we all go to bed, the sooner the sun will rise and the closer we can get to finding Henry.”

“That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day,” Emma agreed before following Regina toward the bedrolls. The blonde gratefully plopped down on her mat before quietly remarking to Regina, “Thanks for bringing her back.”

The older woman kept her eyes trained on the fire crackling a safe distance away.

“Well, I couldn’t disappoint Henry. She means a lot to him, as much as that pains me to say.”

Smiling softly, Emma replied, “She means a lot to me too.”

After a brief awkward silence, both women said goodnight before giving themselves up to sleep.

Closer to the trees, Snow and David stayed curled together for a minute. Soon, though, Charming carried his wife to bed.

As they settled in, David quietly said, “I know we always say that we will find one another, but I’m glad it was Regina who found you this time. I think you would have liked your punishment even less if I had been the one to spank you.”

Snow turned over sharply to stare at her husband with wide eyes.

“You wouldn’t have!”

“I just might have, my little adventuress. Now go to sleep, Snow. All that matter is that you are safe,” he assured, cuddling her closer.

“I love you, Charming,” Snow said sleepily, burrowing her head into his chest.

“I love you too, Snow,” she heard before falling into an easy slumber.


End file.
